Royal wedding will be a starry affair

Guest list includes actors; Joan Rivers will entertain

Below:

Next story in World news

LONDON — Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles plan to celebrate their wedding with friends and family. In their case, that includes movie and TV stars, kings, queens, princes — and an actress who has played two British monarchs on stage and screen.

The couple’s civil wedding ceremony Saturday will be attended only by about two dozen family members — not including Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who is staying away to keep the event “low key.” But the 800-strong list for the blessing service at Windsor Castle is a starry affair.

There is royalty, past and present — including Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, Dutch Prince Constantijn and his wife, Princess Laurentien, and the former king of Greece, Constantine, and his wife Anne-Marie.

Britain’s political elite will be represented by Prime Minister Tony Blair and opposition leaders Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy.

Comedy and poetryEntertainers include ribald comedian Joan Rivers, a friend of the couple, as well as Joanna Lumley, best known for playing gin-soaked aging model Patsy on “Absolutely Fabulous.” Also invited are actors Kenneth Branagh and Richard E. Grant, “Rumpole of the Bailey” author John Mortimer and veteran broadcaster David Frost.

Figures from the music world include Jools Holland, former keyboard player in 1980s band Squeeze, and actress Trudi Styler, wife of superstar Sting. Both Styler and Holland are supporters of Charles’ Princes Trust charity.

Shakespearean actor Timothy West will read verses from Wordsworth at the blessing.

Also on the guest list is his wife, Prunella Scales. Although she’s best known to comedy fans as Sybil Fawlty in 1970s sitcom “Fawlty Towers,” Scales also has made a specialty of royal roles.

She played Charles’ great-great-great grandmother in the acclaimed one-woman stage show “An Evening with Queen Victoria.” And she played Charles’ mother in “A Question of Attribution,” a 1992 television adaptation of Alan Bennett’s play.

The same year, Scales was awarded the title CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, by the monarch. “I suppose you think you ought to be doing this,” the queen reportedly remarked as she bestowed the honor.